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The United Nations is trying to persuade members to join a 15 000-strong peacekeeping force to monitor the cease-fire that halted fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The UN holds a first meeting in New York today, seeking pledges from countries to contribute soldiers to the contingent.

The UN has yet to receive any commitments, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman, said yesterday.

“Countries will be reassured and make their offers'' after today's meeting, said Emyr Jones Parry, the UK's ambassador to the UN. They will discuss “a clear concept'' of operations and rules of engagement. “You will find that after that a lot of things will happen.''

A UN Security Council resolution, approved unanimously Aug. 11, demanded an end to fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after UN and Lebanese forces are deployed. The cease-fire started three days ago and Israeli soldiers have begun withdrawing.

The conflict, which began after Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack July 12, left about 1 200 Lebanese dead and 4 500 wounded, Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat said yesterday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said 159 Israelis were killed. It cost the Israeli economy at least $1,6-billion, according to Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson, and Lebanon's economy as much as $7-billion, according to Fatfat.

The UN contingent is intended to help create a zone free of Hezbollah forces that fired more than 3 000 rockets at northern Israeli towns during the month of fighting.

Hezbollah, whose name means Party of God, has been linked to scores of terrorist attacks on Israelis and Americans, including rocket assaults on Israeli towns, bombings in Beirut in 1983 that killed 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French soldiers, and the 1994 attack that killed 85 people at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The US and Israel designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

Lebanon's Council of Ministers yesterday agreed to send army units into the southern towns of Arqoub, Hasbaya and Marjayoun from today. The deployment is aimed at prohibiting “the existence of any outside authority except for the authority of the Lebanese state,'' according to a statement read by Information Minister Ghazi Aridi in Beirut.

Hezbollah has agreed that Lebanese soldiers may take possession of any weapon that is ``found'' in the area, the Associated Press cited Aridi as saying. The UN resolution passed last week demands that the border area be free of militias and their arms. Hezbollah controls forces independent of the army.

The group has 14 seats in the country's 128-member parliament and two members in the cabinet and has defied UN Resolution 1559 approved in 2004, which calls for the disarming and disbanding of militias in Lebanon.

The UN wants to boost the United Nations Interim Force in southern Lebanon by about 3 500 soldiers within two weeks. The force, known as Unifil, has been based in the region since 1978.

It currently has 1,990 soldiers and 50 military observers, according to the UN.

An expanded Unifil will support efforts by the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. “I don't think there is an expectation that this force is going to physically disarm Hezbollah'' itself, she said.

France is ready to command the expanded force until February, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported. A French general heads the existing UN contingent in Lebanon.

“The real question is whether the international community has the ability to implement its own goals,'' Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said in New York after meeting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. “The situation is explosive.''

US Ambassador John Bolton wouldn't say what the US, would contribute to the expanded UN force, saying only that Washington would like to help and “steps are under way to see if that can be done.''

The UK is deciding what logistical support to provide, Jones Parry said. ``At a minimum,'' it will allow its bases in Cyprus to be used as a staging point for Lebanon, he said.

Israel's military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday that Israeli soldiers might remain in southern Lebanon for months until the UN soldiers are fully deployed, Israel Army radio reported.

“We believe that would be a big mistake'' Mohammad Chatah, an adviser to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, told CNN when asked to respond to such reports. “That is not our understanding'' of the UN resolution.

The US resisted any push for a cease-fire as it held out for a political framework to be put in place to disarm Hezbollah and end the group's control of southern Lebanon. Rice left Israel July 31 after failing to broker an agreement. French diplomats insisted on a cease-fire in Lebanon, a former French protectorate.

The UN said 200 000 Lebanese have returned to their homes since Aug. 13, including 60,000 from Syria, leaving 700,000 still internally displaced. As many as 15,000 homes were destroyed in the fighting, according to the world body.

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